[OSM-talk] Front page (was Re: osm commercial usage)

[Richard Fairhurst]

Steve wrote:

> Pls send any comments on the front page to the list, and while  
> we're at
> it we can have a front page vs. sending to the wiki debate. I thing a
> dashboard front page like this is nicer than the wiki, what do people
> think?

I like the dashboard front page (not entirely an impartial  
viewpoint :) ) - it seems more immediately appealing to a wide  
variety of users, and is less likely to be confused with Wikipedia by  
the non-initiate. And Higgy's CSS is lovely and tidy.

As per Etienne's comments, I'd agree that the "Our users have  
drawn..." and "Where have we mapped..." paragraphs should be swapped,  
and maybe add "(experimental)" in brackets after the "online map"  
link (as with the applet).

The search link is giving me a 500 Internal Server Error atm.

The pics on the original sketch were only really placeholders, and  
for the real live page, yes, they probably need to be as wide as the  
text column. For the first, I'd suggest an excerpt of a Featured  
Image map for the first one - rotating it through 5-15 degrees before  
cropping might be good design-wise.

No great preference for the second (current original at http:// 
www.systemeD.net/stuff/handlebars.jpg, but it's not up to much).  
There are some good CC-licensed Flickr pics tagged with 'gps' or  
'etrex'.

For the third, an action shot of someone out surveying might be  
suitable (TomC's IoW pics on Flickr are good, or if you're really  
stuck I've uploaded one of Ben and Oliver cycling through Ayston to  
http://www.systemeD.net/stuff/ben_ojw.jpg ).

cheers
Richard